Kiss my eyes and lay me to sleep
by PrincessKaili
Summary: Sort of a prequel to another story I plan to write. I suck at summaries, so just read it please...It's all about a girl named Xenos. Disclaimer: I don't own KH, because if I did the relationships would be really screwed up.
1. Introduction Axel

"Coming, coming," I called as I heard a knock on the door of the Castle that Never Was. I opened the door to see a girl standing in the pouring rain. Her long silver cloak didn't stop her from being soaked.

I stepped aside to let her in. "Name's Axel," I said. "Got it memorized?" She pushed back the hood of her cloak. For the first time I saw her piercing blue eyes. They left me breathless. "And you are?" I was nearly whispering.

She opened her mouth as though to say something, but then closed it again. She waited a few moments before telling me her name was Xenos.

"Xenos," I repeated under my breath. That's when I realized that it wasn't the name I liked so much, but the way she said it.

In the time she spent with us, Xenos became an ally. She became the person we could all trust. She knew everything about everyone, but she would never tell. She was someone who would listen to you talk for hours, or sit silently when you didn't want to talk at all. At some point, she made us all feel something.

Xenos became a friend.


	2. Listen Larxene

At first I didn't like the girl. Maybe it was a bit selfish, but she took attention away from me. Everyone talked to her because she could actually care about their stupid problems. I would have killed to be able to care! Hell, I had killed to try to be able to care. I didn't like her. I didn't like sharing my element with her. But most of all, I didn't like the way Axel stared at her. All the time.

It sickened me.

"See ya later, Larx!" Axel called as he left one day. The door slammed behind him.

I turned towards the wall. "He's so clueless," I mumbled to myself.

"What was that?" a girl's voice asked. So naturally I had to assume that it was the only other girl in the castle. Xenos. I turned around, and guess what? I was right! Surprise, surprise. How the hell did she come in without me noticing?

"Nothing," I said. "What are you doing here?" She walked further into the room and sat on one of the many chairs, clearly not seeing that she wasn't wanted.

"I just came to say I'm sorry."

"What for?" That was another thing I hated about her. Anyone could say they were sorry. Xenos could actually mean it.

"I dunno," she had this annoyingly high voice and a habit of chewing her gum really loudly. After all she'd done, she didn't even know? I was starting to get really pissed off. The girl acted so innocent and naïve. But I could see right through that. "It's just… you don't seem to like me very much. And I don't like not being liked." Why couldn't she just say she hated me too so that I could go on acting like she didn't exist? When I didn't respond, she continued. As though she felt like she needed to say something. "So what's Axel so clueless about?"

To this day I don't know why I told her. Everything I've said about her should have made me not want to tell her.

But maybe that's why I did.

I sat down next to her and I told her the entire story of how Axel and I had been together, before we were nobodies. I told her how much I had liked him. That I'd never gotten to see how far it would have gone.

Xenos… she really was a good person. She kind of made it clear to Axel that she wasn't interested in him after that day. And when I was done talking, she gave me the best advice she could have given.

"Just talk to him," she stood up to leave. "He's not quite as clueless as you might think."

…I really despise that girl.


	3. Trust Demyx

Xenos. I know it sounds strange, me being a nobody and all, but she makes me feel. That's why I always liked talking to her so much. She was easy to trust. Everyone trusted her. The only thing different with me was that she trusted me too. I knew everything about her. I knew who she was and where she came from. I even knew her true name. Things she never would have told the rest of the Organization.

But then one day it just… stopped. We didn't talk anymore. It was like… Pandora's Box, in a way. The only reason it's so tempting is because you don't know what's inside. Xenos was avoiding me. And I wanted to know why.

So I finally opened the box.

"I'm not avoiding you," she said softly. She'd always been a bad liar.

"Liar," I said, "really, why?" She answered me, but I didn't hear her. "What was that?" I asked.

"Because you make me feel weak," she mumbled.

"Oh come on, I know I'm stronger than you," I teased her, "but that's really no reason to avoid me, now is it?" I tilted her head up, forcing her to look at me.

"Not like that," she said. She wrapped her arms around my neck and pulled me closer to her. Her inexperienced lips touched mine. I slid my arms around her waist, pulling her body closer… closer…

"You make me feel weak," she repeated after she had to pull away to breathe. And this time I knew exactly what she meant.

Because she made me feel the same way.

And maybe it was the white summer dress that made her look so pretty (I always kind of wondered where she got all her clothes). Or maybe it was the nervous look in her piercing blue eyes. Or maybe it was the fact that for the first time, I felt something. For whatever reason, I kissed her again.

And I continued kissing her whenever I wanted, right up until the day she left. And I would tell her I loved her once, even though she knew it couldn't be true. We both knew it wouldn't last.

But we both wanted it to.


	4. Feel Roxas

Xenos was a friend of mine. I trusted her. And so I did the stupidest thing I could have possibly done.

You see, a while back I wrote some letters. Love letters. To Naminé. Which was a stupid thing to begin with because, well, I'm a nobody. I can't feel. I never sent the letters. Didn't know where to send them to.

But the really stupid thing I did was show them to Xenos.

"Roxas and Naminé, sittin' in a tree," Xenos sang, "K-I-S-S-I-N-G!" Xenos was my age. She should really learn to act it. "First comes love-"

"Shut the fuck up, Xenos," I told her. The fact that I had used the word fuck and called her Xenos (instead of Xen, which is what I always called her) was enough to let her know that I was pissed off. She shut up right away.

"But really, Rox," she said. "You love her."

"Has the fact that I can't love slipped your mind, Xenos?" Not to mention the fact that I hadn't seen Naminé for the past year or so. She could be a completely different person now. _She could not exist now,_ I reminded myself painfully.

"But you do," Xenos insisted. "It's soooo obvious." Childish much, Xenos? She picked up one of the letters and proceeded to read it. Out loud. "_Dearest Naminé,_" I snatched the letter from her hands before she could continue. It wasn't like anyone else could hear – we were locked in my room. But it was still embarrassing. Xenos looked at me. "Dearest Naminé," she repeated. "Not just dear. Dearest. Is it that hard for you to believe that you actually care about her?"

I paused, thinking. "I'm a nobody, Xen," I said softly. "I can't feel."

She held up a fistful of letters. "If nobodies can't feel, why would you write something like this?" She was nearly in tears. "If nobodies can't feel, why would Demyx kiss me the way he does?"

And I finally understood. This whole thing – she was just trying to find hope for her and Demyx. She finally broke down and cried. And I understood that too. Xenos spent all her time caring about us – and she didn't have anyone to care about her. I couldn't stand to see her cry. So, not knowing what else to do, I hugged her.

"See?" she said, finally wiping away her tears. "You do have feelings. You care about me."

I realized later that Xenos might be right. I cared about her and protected her like a sister. And I loved Naminé.

After Xenos left, I was surprised to open the box where I kept the letters to find only a note.

Rox,

It's time Naminé finally got to read your letters. She'll be happy to know you cared.

-Xen

I smiled. Xenos had known where Naminé was all along. It suddenly hit me that I never really knew anything about Xenos. Who she was, where she came from…

…And now I would never get to find out.


	5. Heart vexen

She was always interested in my studies of the heart. I could never understand why. Xenos didn't need to study the heart. She had one.

But nearly every day she would come down to my lab. She would ask what I was doing and I would give her a lengthy explanation that you would never expect someone so young to understand. Very rarely she would ask what I meant. And I would tell her, mainly because she really wanted to know. No one else ever wanted to hear about my work until I got results.

"Whatcha doin'?" she asked, just like every other day.

"Same thing as yesterday." For the first time I didn't elaborate. I was too absorbed in my work.

"And that would be…?" she asked. She didn't like being ignored, I realized. We'd all given her too much attention. Just because she wasn't a nobody? Just because she had a heart? She had a heart… suddenly I had an idea. I looked at her.

"You know," I said, "I think you could help me."

"Really? Cool!" She got up from her chair in the corner, happy to be useful (for once). "So… what exactly am I helping with?"

I smiled. "I'm going to see just how much pain a heart can take."


	6. Training Xigbar

The girl was never gonna survive if no one taught her how to fight. So I offered to do it. The rest of us couldn't protect her all the time.

"You? Train me?" I almost_almost_ thought she was laughing. Almost. "Are you serious?"

"Yeah I'm serious." Was she stupid or something? "You'll never survive if you don't know how to fight."

She smiled. "All right." She pulled 2 daggers out of her shoes. Yep. Her shoes. That's a little weird if you ask me. Then she did some weird thing with the daggers where she twirled them between her fingers and suddenly they were charged with electricity. "Let's go."

"Now?" I stared at her in disbelief. Was she crazy? Was she trying to get herself killed? Not that I would actually kill her in some stupid practice fight.

"Why not?" she asked. "Unless you're scared."

I was never one to refuse a challenge. So we fought. Even though she was bound to loose, her 2 daggers against my endless bullets.

So what if I was wrong?

Turns out her daggers were endless too. She could summon them out of nowhere. And she only used them to block my bullets. She fought hand-to-hand. Something I wasn't used to. But I could deal with it.

So what if I underestimated her?

This is where my whole levitating upside down thing comes in handy. But it didn't seem to phase her one bit. "If that's the way you want to play," she jumped up, continuing to hit and kick and dodge my attacks. God that girl could stay in the air for a long time. She finally fell back down, catching herself with both hands and both feet. "Screw gravity," she said, jumping up again.

So what if I lost?

She stood up and began to walk away. She paused, turned, and said in her sweetest, most innocent voice, "You'll never survive if you don't know how to fight, Xigbar." She continued walking.

Damn that girl was good. I would never forgive myself for underestimating her.

Never.


	7. Thorns Marluxia

Every now and then she would come sit in my garden. And every now and then I would look over at her. And I would see her dark brown hair and piercing blue eyes and remember another, much younger girl with the same hair and the same eyes. And I could see that little girl running around the garden, laughing, smiling, smelling the flowers. And I could remember telling her, "Mommy won't be happy if you pick those," or, "Careful honey, those have thorns."

Once Xenos leaned over to smell one of the roses. "Careful," I told her, "those have thorns."

"I know," she said. She sat in silence as usual before she spoke up again. "Marluxia, why do you do this?"

"Do what?"

"This," she waved her hand around. "The garden. Why do you keep the garden?"

I wasn't sure if I wanted to tell her. But it had been years. I might as well talk to someone about it. "My wife… she used to have a garden just like this. I guess it reminds me of her." I paused. "My little girl, too. She loved the flowers."

"What was her name?" Xenos asked. She sure did have a lot of questions.

"My wife's name was Laura," I told her.

"And your daughter?" Her voice seemed… hesitant, almost.

"Rose."

"What happened to them?"

"Nothing happened to them," I said. "It's me something happened to."

"Oh." She fell silent once more, and I was glad that she knew when to keep her mouth shut.

But later I wondered. Why did she care so much? Why did she hesitate as she asked her questions? Why did she remind me so much of my little Rose?

Why had she felt the need to bring up the thorns of my past?


	8. Game Luxord

"Hey Luxord!" she called out. She was sitting at a table in the corner of the library, shuffling a deck of cards. "Up for a game?"

I wasn't stupid. I knew what she was doing. There was that familiar gleam of wickedness in her piercing blue eyes. She had fought almost everyone in the Organization. She'd beaten everyone she'd fought at least once. She liked beating people at their own game.

Xenos knew it would be useless to fight me. This was my game.

"You got any money?" I asked. I wasn't going to refuse her challenge. It was just more fun if there was something in it for me.

"Nope," the girl had such an air of confidence, "but I'm sure it won't matter much. I'll find some way to pay you back if I loose, 'kay?" If she lost? When she lost.

So we played. Poker, in case you were wondering. She shuffled, I cut the deck, to make sure she wasn't cheating. She dealt the cards. I ended up with a pair of kings. Not too bad. Xenos was betting money she didn't even have. We both remained expressionless, emotionless. Which must have been harder for her, because she actually had emotions. She was bluffing. But so was I. She was so obviously bluffing.

And when we finally turned our cards over, her pair of aces beat my pair of kings. And it was over. I had lost.

She beat me at my own game.

She took the money off the table and began to walk away. She paused, turned. "Hey Luxord," she said in the sweetest, most innocent voice ever. It sickened me. It made me want to kill her. "Good game."

"Yeah." I'd finally learned the lesson she'd been trying to teach everyone in the Organization ever since she got here.

Never underestimate Xenos.


End file.
